So then, how does the lowly 40-kWh LEAF fare these days even though it’s getting very old (outside of the major exterior redesign and some other small changes).

Let’s turn it over to Alex on Autos and his always amazing EV review videos for all of the details. Is the base 2019 LEAf worth your dollars?Or is the $35,000 Model 3 the better deal?

Video description:

The world’s best selling EV got a significant redesign for 2018.

Gone is the controversial styling in favor of a mainstream look that’s a hybrid of Nissan’s sedan and crossover lineup. The engineers also took the time to bump up the horsepower, increase the efficiency and goose the range to 150 miles for the base battery and 215 for the upcoming 2019 Leaf Plus model.

The one thing that hasn’t changed? The lack of active battery cooling which could be a competitive disadvantage for the longer range model.

With all the incentives near me I was able to get a $36,000 Leaf for $21,000. That was enough for me to be ok with lack of TMS given where I live. It should serve well as a second car for my household for quite some time if I choose to keep it.

Yes, and the rapidgate fix Nissan developed is not needed in the U.S. according to Nissan. Why you may ask, since there is no logic whatsoever in their announcement, except Nissan says it is not needed.

8 years is good, 160000km is not bad, what about the degradation? A Nissan dealer told me that wearing is normal in all batteries and as long as the car moves battery is not broken and there is no warranty. Sounds reassuring to you?

Nissan’s e-Power idea (an ICE that powers an electric motor by using a small battery) it’s a stupid redirection of the financial and human efforts.
Meanwhile, the implementation of a cooling system for the battery pack and/or new technologies to improve the efficiency were put aside… All in all, the leading position of the Nissan’s sales of the electric vehicles is under huge threat.

It’s not under threat it’s gone! The Hyundia/Kia alternatives are superior and the model3 is blasting past it on sales.
Which is a shame because it should still be leading but Nissan has killed that off.

I prize both reliability and durability in a vehicle. Reliable because I use it to earn income. If my vehicle has a break down I’m out both the cost of repair and the income loss for the scheduled work. Durable because I’m a frugal person who likes things that last a long time. So in terms of the car and it’s battery we just have to wait a few years (or decades?) and see how they fare.

So when the time comes to replace my 2018 40kwh Leaf in 2022, if it has met my requirements it will be the first choice. I’ll take reliable and durable over specs and performance criteria anytime.

Are you leasing? If you bought, you might consider selling your 40 kWh Leaf ASAP, because deep dive in price when Tesla Y is released will be more than any potential savings. This is especially true with documented battery overheating in Norwegian winter.

It’s admirable that you are a frugal person, but no amount of babying the battery will improve the cooling system. It’s always good to take care of things, but products that have either inferior design, or components, the Nissan Leaf battery is an example of having both, will degrade faster than well made batteries which are better, and have superior cooling/heat ala a LTMS. It’s just physics and chemistry. So your reliability and durability claims are merely specious as reports to the contrary keep pouring in as regards Nissan early battery packs, and yours is only a year old. Come back in 2022 and tells us how reliable and durable the battery pack is then. Nissan claims they have solved all their problems with heat degradation and inability to store a charge, thereby admitting the problems they claimed for years did not exist, were true. After that admission they have improved over their early battery efforts, which where horrific, but Captain, you can’t change the laws of physics, battery packs that repeatedly exceed certain temperature ranges degrade more rapidly. Nissan cobbled together some fixes to slow charging to prevent the batteries from overheating, which causes damage, there’s that nasty chemistry,… Read more »

Nissan cost me thousands of dollars with their garbage 1st Gen product. I’ll never give them a dime of my money ever again. They kicked the early adopters to the curb, and if they’d helped folks like me out, I’d be more inclined to forgive their mistake. But they didn’t own it, turned their back on the folks that took a leap of faith on their 1st Gen Leaf, so they can get bent for all I care.

Replying to BoltEV, ffbj and John. Bolt EV I’ve had no problem with battery overheating in a Canadian winter. Only had a couple DCFCs so far and the temp didn’t go above halfway. ffbj you throw out an excellent challenge. If I’m not run over by EV on auto drive before 2022 I will indeed report the state of my battery good or bad. And to John. I have to agree that Nissan’s treatment of the first Leaf buyers was pretty bad. If I was in your shoes I’d probably feel the same way.